RAW is WAR. Review on Buying a Digital Camera

Its festive time with Navratri/Dusshera and Diwali round the corner. Time to dress up and time to bring out and clean your cameras and gear up for some great snaps.

If you are undecided on which camera to buy/use, here's a little writeup that might stir the photographer in you and possibly help you decide. I had been using the Canon Powershot A540 for almost 2 years before I switched on to the Nikon D3000. The 1st one is a very good point-and-shoot digicam while the 2nd one is what you call a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex).

To put it in a simple manner, every photo that you capture is a function of (1) the field of view shown by your lens, (2) the amount of light allowed to be captured by adjusting the size of aperture (hole) and the length of time of exposure and (3) the sensitivity of your photographic plate/film/sensor.

So what is it that makes Digicams different from DSLRs ? Are the differences really important. Following are a few "points of comparison" between Digicams & DSLRs that might help you decide.

(1) Format - Photos taken by Digicams are usually "processed" before being saved in JPEG format. It basically means that the output is not the same as input and the software on your camera has altered the output in a preprogrammed way (depending on the camera manufacturer). To put is bluntly, it means that your camera decides what kind of pictures you take. With DSLRs, photos are captured in what is called RAW formatwhich is basically capturing all that comes in the camera in its entirety without any modification/processing. In a way this is equivalent to a film negative. This is where DSLRs really sell. They give you the ability to capture a photo and change settings (color, sharpness, exposure), not as much to give outstanding results but more to compensate for the wrong setting which you may have used to take the pic. On the flip side, RAW format occupies approx. 8 times the space compared to the JPEG format. So you'll have to use 4/8/16 GB cards for decent memory backup.

(2) Zoom - a much misunderstood term. I assume everyone knows that digital zoom is zilch and we are talking of optical zoom here. Zoom simply means the ability of a camera to vary its focal length & hence approach to the subject within a range. This is different from magnification which is the ability of bringing the subject closer to the camera. Just to illustrate the point, the human eye has a focal length of around 50 mm. So a camera that zooms from 15mm to 45 mm will have a so called zoom of 3x but even at maximum zoom, the pics will appear farther than that seen by the naked human eye. Compared to this another camera/lens may have a zoom of 150mm-300mm, i.e only 2x but at a setting of 300 mm, it will magnify the object 6 times compared to the naked eye.

(3) Depth of field - is the ability of a camera to focus over a distance. A camera having a large depth of field will have the ability to focus equally well at objects both near and far in the same photograph. For example if you are taking pics of a person standing 2 kms from a mountain, a deep focus camera will have both the person and the mountain in sharp focus while a shallow focus camera will have only the person in sharp focus while the mountain will appear blurred. The depth of field is what allows you multiple focus points on the same snap.

(4) Antiblur/Vibration Reduction - The ability of a camera to accommodate shakes/vibration. This becomes especially important with long zooms when even a small shake can spoil the picture. Both Digicams and DSLRs have anti-shake techonologies but in case of DSLRs, VR (Vibration Reduction) lenses are often thrice as expensive as normal ones.

(5) Megapixels - A rather hyped-up feature of cameras. Anything above 7-8 megapixels is sufficient for printing 4"6" or 5"7" snaps as also for playback. Its only when you want larger prints that 10 Megapixels and above is desirable.

(6) Video - Most Digicams today offer video capture (usually in DivX formats) while only middle range and above DSLRs offer video shooting. However, most of the DivX formats are proprietary and playback in other gadgets is often a headache. But the thing to watch out here is which cameras offer the "zoom" facility while video capture. This turns out to be a very useful feature.

(7) Lenses – While Digicams have fixed lenses, DSLRs have removable ones. This means that you can use different types of lenses for different situations. Original Nikon/Canon/Pentax/Sony lenses cost anything from 5K to 1000k (yes you read it right). However companies like Tamron & Sigma offer cheaper alternatives with almost the same quality.

(8) Weight - DSLRs, even the most light ones, typically weigh about 800 gms and above with a lens while digicams are usually between 130-250 gms. So if you have problems holding your camera for too long, DSLRs should be out of consideration.

(9) Cost - While the best digicams/prosumers cost about 22K, DSLRs start at about 28K. Add to that the cost of various lenses which are often costlier than the camera. You might have to shell out at least 60-70K for a couple of lenses to "complete" your DSLR kit.

(10) Battery - Most DSLRs have Li-ion batteries which offer good backup and are easily recharged (within a couple of hours) but are costlier too. Most Digicams would have AA sized R6 batteries which are cheaper but take longer to recharge.

So much for the various points of contention between Digicams & DSLRs. But the most important aspect that would help you decide your camera is "What is it that you want to shoot". Situations like Underlit Rooms, Fireworks, fast moving objects, "Flash Banned" monuments, full object from close-up (wide-angle), etc are best photographed on a DSLR. You'll notice that the list covers up almost everything. Though the Digicams today are fast offering a lot of features previously limited only to DSLRs, the gap is still wide.

To conclude, for Purists there has never been a debate. Its always been DSLRs. But even for "Adulterists" (for want of a better word), one clincher I'd like to put forth in favour of DSLRs is that it has enough intricacies to keep you hooked for a long time.

For someone like me who gets bored of hobbies too soon, DSLR photography has managed to keep me amused for quite some time.